Upagupta (Rabindranath Tagore)

 About the Author:

Rabindranath Tagore, (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali He wrote  literature both in Bengali and English languages. Author of “Gitanjali” and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. Tagore introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing the best of Indian culture to the West. He is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of the modern Indian subcontinent, being highly commemorated in India and Bangladesh, as well as in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan.

Introduction:

The Poem “Upagupta” establishes the impermanence of sensual pleasures, the root cause of sorrow being attachment to material pleasures etc. and many such philosophical and spiritual truths. Tagore achieves this through the incidents in the life of a dancing girl and her meeting with an ascetic called Upagupta.

Upagupta and the Dancing Girl:

Upagupta is a disciple of Buddha, and goes from one place to another. He is sleeping in a small town when a dancing girl wakes him up and requests him to sleep at her home. Upagupta refuses, and tells her “I will visit you when the time is ripe.” A year later, and again on travel to the same place, Upagupta finds the dancing girl lying on the ground outside the town, having sores all over the body and shunned by the townsfolk. He applies sandal-balm on her body and when asked who he was, he replies “The time has come to visit you and I am here.”

Two Different Scenes:

Two different scenes which were separated in time are described in the Lines 1-12 are in the first scene. It is in the rainy season. Lines 13-22 are in the second scene. It is in the spring season and the branches of the trees were full of flowers.

First Scene:

Upagupta was asleep in the dust by the city wall of Mathura. He slept in the dust because he was a saint and he hated comfort, luxury and wealth. The night was described as murky because it was dark and unpleasant everywhere. It was the rainy season. So, people stayed indoors and they closed the doors and put out all lights. At that time of the night the dancing girl was returning home from the royal court. As it was dark at that time, she approached the city wall and couldn't see the path clearly. She touched Upagupta with her feet. He didn't mind her feet touching him since it wasn't deliberate attempt.

The dancer was attracted by Upagupta's austerely face. She thought that the dusty earth wasn't the proper place for the ascetic to sleep on. So, she requested Upagutpa to come to her house. But he was a saint. He hated comfort, wealth and worldly pleasure. So, he declined the dancer's invitation. He promised her that he would visit her house at an appropriate time.

Second Scene:

It was the spring season. The branches of the trees were full of flowers. The air was warm and the breeze made musical sounds. The town was silent and there was none because most of the citizens left for the woods to attend the festival of flowers. The dancing girl was suffering from a deadly disease called small-pox and she was driven away from the town. She had severe sores on her body. They were very painful and the disease was contagious. She lied in the shadow of the city wall, suffering. She should be looked after by someone. The time for the ascetic, Upagupta, had come to serve her. He sat by the side of the suffering woman. He took her head on his knees, watered her lips, applied some sandal-balm to her sores and showed great care towards her. The dancing girl asked who the merciful one was. He was Upagupta. He said that it was the right time for him to visit her because the duty of an ascetic was to render service to humanity.

Conclusion:

The two moments shown in the life of the girl are the two cardinal moments in her life. The poem explains the inner and outer life of a dancing girl. In the beginning she prefers worldly pleasure. Transformation occurs in the life of her when she receives kind treatment in the hands of the ascetic.